Why the difference? Most likely the dieter whose weight came back lost a significant amount of muscle mass along with fat and the other person retained more muscle mass as the weight came off.

“Maintaining muscle mass is important to sustainable weight control,” says Aloys Berg, M.D., department head for rehabilitative and preventive Sports Medicine at the University Clinic Freiburg in Freiburg, Germany.

There is a direct correlation between muscle mass and basal metabolism, he said. “If 20 percent of your muscle mass is lost during a diet, your basal metabolism declines by 20 percent.”

This means dieters who lose muscle mass burn calories at a lower rate than before starting the diet. So, when they return to normal eating they must permanently eat less or exercise more to compensate for the slower metabolism. The average person would have to eat 400 calories less or burn 400 calories more a day. Few people do this, said Berg, “So the additional calories are stored as fat."

Unfortunately, nearly all weight loss diets result in the loss of muscle mass along with fat loss. In fact, some 25 percent of a person’s weight loss is actually the loss of muscle mass, according to a meta-analysis published in the International Journal of Obesity. The meta-study shows that people who exercise while dieting lost significantly less muscle mass than dieters who did not exercise.

Clinical evidence
Berg, who has studied obesity for 20 years, has found another way to protect muscle mass during weight reduction programs. His discovery emerged in the first part a yearlong clinical study he is conducting with patients who are receiving Almased as a diet supplement. Almased is a natural soy-based multi-protein powder that is fermented using a patented manufacturing process.

After six months, instead of losing muscle mass, Berg’s patients lost fat. In fact, 100 percent of the total weight loss was fat.

Berg concluded that to lose fat rather than muscle, the body must receive large, ingestible amounts of high quality amino acids to support the body’s nutritional needs. Without this support, the body often consumes its own muscle to satisfy the protein requirements.

Amino acids are the key
Amino acids are critical to normal, healthy living. Besides being the building blocks of protein, they serve our hormones and facilitate the transmission of chemical messages from our nerves. If a person does not receive enough of the right kind of protein from the diet, the body turns to its own muscle mass for the protein. So it must have amino acids to function properly.

Berg said that Almased contains a high concentration of branched amino acids, like soy protein peptides. These branched-connected amino acids and soy protein peptides build the bio chemical basis for the body's immune-competent cells and regular cells, creating plenty of energy for well-functioning cell exchange. Three branched amino acids - valine, leucine, and isoleucine - are metabolized in muscle tissue, which is essential for muscle synthesis.

“With Almased, the muscle's cells are well supported,” said Berg, noting that by using two protein sources, soy and skim milk yogurt powder, Almased provides the correct quantity of amino acids to protect muscle cells during a calorie reduction program. The multi-protein formula supplies a rich assortment of all amino acids, including the ten that are notoriously difficult to retrieve through normal meals.

Almased’s patented fermentation process also protects the quality of the amino acids. Rudolf Keil, a licensed pharmacist and health and nutrition consultant for Offizinpharmacy in Grevenbroich, Germany, explains why Almased chose biological fermentation over more readily available techniques.

"In its raw form, soy can be difficult for some people to digest and the company needed to address this possible side effect," said Keil, who consults with Almased. "One possibility was to ‘pre-digest,’ or hydrolyze the soy.”

This process, however, “is a kind of rape of natural protein compositions,” because the chemical procedure uses acid and solutions at a temperature of 110-degree Celsius, he said.

Instead, Almased created a biological solution, which it patented, to avoid altering the protein's amino acids. And, with Almased's high quantity of essential amino acids, the cells can absorb them easily, providing better muscle protection.

Why Almased has success
With a weight-reduction program that incorporates Almased, people lose fat and retain muscle. Losing fat while maintaining muscle mass means a higher metabolism, a condition that burns fat more efficiently on an ongoing basis.

Dieters on Almased are well nourished and are sustaining muscle - a vital component to every healthy body. In fact, dieters reported feeling so energetic and positive about their weight loss during Berg's study that they were able to stick with the diet at an uncommon rate. Ninety-five percent of the participants continued the program through out the six months.

Online Ordering Developed by German Scientists, the Almased TurboDiet Program is a 100% all-natural, clinically tested and approved, healthy way to lose weight. This stimulant-free diet teaches the body to "think thin" with NO cravings, NO fatigue and NO yo-yo effect. For more information view the rest of this website or call us at 1-877-ALMASED (256-2733).

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*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.
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